At the end of a three-day visit to Bulgaria, Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, said today he was concerned at the insufficient transparency of media ownership and financing and lack of action against media concentration.This has reportedly resulted in a media landscape worryingly characterised by many outlets serving few interests.

“Genuine media pluralism is the institutional guarantee for the fulfillment of the right to receive and impart information and the authorities must take steps to secure it”, said Nils Muižnieks.

Referring to the recent imposition of high fines by the Bulgarian financial supervision authority on media reporting on companies’ financial activities and the banking sector, he said that “this is very disturbing. In a context already characterised by limited space for free reporting in the public interest, these fines clearly induce further self-censorship”.